WEBINAR | COVID and Kids – Current Impact, and What Back to School and Sports Mean for Public Health

Roberta DeBiasi, MD, MS, Chief of the Division of Pediatric Diseases and Co-Director of the institutional Emerging and Highly Contagious Infectious Disease Task Force (including Ebola and COVID-19), Children’s National Health System, and Nathaniel Beers, MD, MPA, FAAP, President, The HSC Health Care System, Washington DC and the former Chief Operating Officer of DC Public Schools.  As the nation marches toward its return to “normal”, learn how COVID-19 has impacted the pediatric population to date – and what to expect – as kids come back from camp, return to school, and once again routinely engage in extra-curricular sports and clubs.  Dr. DeBiasi speaks to the effects of COVID-19 on children, the status of current circulating variant strains, progress on vaccine trials with patients as young as six months old, and COVID testing for kids.  She also discusses the launch of a long term outcomes study of children with COVID-19 and MIS-C that she is leading in partnership with the National Institute of Health, and the anticipated impact of a normal school year on the pandemic weary systems providing healthcare.  Dr. Beers speaks to the policy and science behind returning to in-person instruction and play for children and adolescents.  He also discusses the role for pediatricians in supporting the safe return to school and sports.